The Poison Planet
by ZestyMelon
Summary: Decades after the planet has been evacuated, a small group of researchers are sent to Midnight. What should have been a routine mission goes wrong when they realize there's something watching them from the shadows.
1. Waiting

Midnight was waiting. Through the abandoned hallways, the hollow rooms, the barren pool, and off to the glittering cliffs poisoned by the sun, Midnight was waiting. The dust had settled since the last humans left. Their silence echoed through the resort, never emptied of their old bits and debris. They'd left trash in the bins, beds unmade, and an old pencil that would occasionally, and for no particular reason, roll across the lobby floor. It was the only disruption to the calm that blanketed the once busy scene. Everything else stood still. It was as if the whole planet was holding its breath. And some of it was.

Because despite appearances, Midnight was not empty. They were where they had always been, in the unexplored caves and crevices, and hiding behind the crystal waterfalls. And now they had new homes. They were in the darkened hallways. They hid behind the half-closed doors. They were a million other places too, because Midnight was waiting. It was waiting for you.

Well, not you exactly. But they knew your kind. The first humans had made quite the impression. Bodies so warm, lives so rich, how could anyone resist making that their own? They certainly couldn't. And they, as you know, hadn't. But that first attempt had gone bad, as most first attempts do. The humans got scared. They took their clothes, their technology, their toys, and their very warm bodies very far away. But along with all the junk, the humans had left something very important behind, and that was patience. Because now they knew. Those first few million years they'd spent alone, in the dark and in the cold, that hadn't been for nothing. They had been waiting for something extraordinary and they hadn't even known it. They were waiting now, again, but that wasn't so bad. They at least knew what they were waiting for. Humans were stupid creatures, easily impressed by mystery, or failing that, shiny things. They'd be back. They'd forget. _They_ would not. It would take time. But eventually, they knew, there would be a second chance. And as they watched the small space-pod land in the old docking bay, Midnight knew its wait had ended.


	2. Inez

Inez was back at work, and that was…it was fine. Really. She was handling it. She stared at her desk, as always a mess with her papers, books, and old battered computer. She kept meaning to request a new one. There was a department meeting that Thursday a while back, and she was going to ask Mikhail about the university's request process, but then Wednesday…

Well. Wednesday happened. Hence the break. No new computer.

But she was back now! Inez was sat at her desk and she was at work again surrounded by papers and books and her plant could really use some water and she hoped her computer still worked, and that's when she realized that she wasn't. Working, that is. Close to an hour had gone by, and despite the desk and the mess and the maybe broken computer, Inez hadn't done any work. She'd just been staring. Sitting. Useless. She laid her hand on the computer.

"Maybe I won't get rid of you," she whispered to it. "Maybe we're both a little broken."

There was a soft knock at her opened office door. Inez jumped a bit, ripping her hand away from where it had been stroking the lump of plastic and metal like it was an old pet. Looking up she saw sad eyes on a familiar face and didn't have to wonder if her personal pity party had been noticed.

"Are you okay?"

Inez forced a smile onto her face.

"Fine. Yeah, fine. Nice to see you again, Dee-dee."

"You sure?" Dee-dee asked, and her face was so warm and kind. Inez thought it made her look soft, strangely. Inez had never thought of Dee-dee as soft. Dee-dee was too analytical, too much a perfectionist to ever be soft. She was a hardened academic after all, someone with enough confidence and intelligence that when she talked most people listened, and the people who didn't were always the worse for it. Everyone in the university respected Dee-dee Jones. Inez was different though. She worshipped her. "It's early. I know people deal with these things at different rates, but if you don't feel up to it, you don't have to be here. In fact, many studies suggest—"

"No!" Inez said. Dee-dee was quiet. Inez swallowed the lump in her throat. "I'm sorry, I just—This gives me something to do. Gets me out of the house. I think…I think I need that. This is what I need right now."

Dee-dee nodded slowly. Considering her performance, Inez was willing to bet she didn't have her fooled. There was another look in Dee-dee's eyes. It wasn't just kind or soft. It was the kind of thing Inez had been seeing too often of late.

"I need to ask you something," Dee-dee said. "Before I do, I just want you to know that you should say no."

And there it was. Inez was being pitied

"I can handle it," she said forcefully. "Whatever you need me to do, I'll do. That hasn't changed."

Dee-dee gave her a small smile.

"Maybe wait until you hear what it is."

Inez waited. Her answer didn't change. A week later she boarded the ship and felt a chill run down her back. She wasn't stupid, after all. She knew if this expedition had Dee-dee worried it wasn't safe. The terror that produced shouldn't have been so thrilling. But perhaps after having to be fine for so long, feeling anything was a welcome change. And maybe…yeah, Inez had nothing to fear. The worst had already happened.

* * *

Author's Note: So this is a super short chapter, which definitely makes up for the year I had to write it (she says sarcastically). I'm planning on working on this more regularly now, and hey maybe I can even write a chapter that's more than 1,000 words! I can dream anyway. Just know I'm trying, okay?


	3. The Mission

Mandy straightened up, reaching out her hand as high as it would go. She groaned as she only reached air, and stood on her tip-toes to try again. This time her fingers brushed her weapons pack, but the shelf was still too high for her to grasp it.

"Need some help?" said Leslie as he walked up behind her.

"I got it."

Leslie smirked, then swiped the weapons pack before Mandy could make a move to stop him. He dangled it out in front of her, just high enough that she still had to jump for it. She did so, snatching it before punching Leslie lightly in the arm.

"I almost had that," she said.

"You didn't," said Leslie. "Sorry, Mandy, these shelves aren't child-sized. An oversight, surely, we'll have to speak to management."

"I'm 5'2," said Mandy. "That's adult-sized. It's perfectly normal. We can't all be 6'4 skeletons."

"You wound me! I'm not nearly pale enough to be a skeleton."

"Is that your only reason why not?"

"You know we could all be 6'4, though."

"Oh not this again."

"What? It's been proven that scientists discovered years ago how to hack DNA. They could mold babies like clay if they really wanted to, but the government—"

"Right, the government locked those secrets away in some vault on Jupiter or whatever."

"Actually, it's a government facility on Mars, but right idea."

"It's so made up," said Mandy. "You just want it to be true because you want your baby to have four legs and four arms."

"The government won't stop me. I will have my spider-son. My beautiful bouncing baby bug boy."

"If the government did lock those secrets away, I think I can see why."

"Yes, they hate progress." Leslie grabbed his own pack down from the shelf. "Let's get moving then, shall we?"

It hadn't been too long since Mandy had been a university student, but all the same it felt strange walking through a campus again. There were a few too many students with dark bags under their eyes guzzling coffee as they hurried off to their next lectures. It brought back memories, and not the fun ones, so Mandy was relieved by the time they made it to Professor Jones' office.

Dee-dee Jones was not a large woman. She was in fact slightly shorter than Mandy, which Mandy was quite pleased about. Jones wore a long skirt and a comfortable brown jumper. On her face was a pair of glasses, and in her arms were some rather dull looking books. She was, as far as first impressions go, a complete geek. That was a technical classification, of course. Mandy had a whole chart. Well, it wasn't technically a physical chart. It existed primarily in Mandy's imagination. Outside that, it existed only as an abridged version which had lodged itself in Leslie's mind after Mandy's many explanations. For Leslie's part, he would have pegged Jones as more of tiny know-it-all type based on Mandy's extremely scientific criteria. She did, after all, have glasses _and_ read books. Jones looked the pair up and down.

"Are you all they sent?" said Jones. Mandy glared at her.

"Yes ma'am. I'm Officer Opeyemi, this is my partner, Officer Fontaine," Leslie said. "Hopefully we're not too much of a disappointment."

"Oh, I didn't mean to—Well, it's only, this is potentially a very dangerous mission. I'd been under the impression that there would just be…more of you. You know, numerically speaking."

"The Company decided on quality over quantity," Mandy sniffed. "Don't worry. We're the best of the best."

"Well, yes, I'm sure you are," said Jones. "I assume you're well aware of what you're getting into?"

"We've dug up what we could," said Leslie. "Small-ish planet, poisoned sunlight, mysteriously abandoned something like twenty years back, and you're sending us to babysit some geologists while they look at rocks there. Alright, so I'm assuming that's what the geologists want to do. That is what they do though, geologists, just look at rocks?"

"I think they sometimes pick them up as well," said Mandy.

"Ah yes, I suppose they must. To assist the looking."

"I understand that under the circumstances you may not be inclined to take this entirely seriously," said Jones. "But considering the risk this places both you and my colleagues under, I implore you to try and behave like adults."

Leslie winced.

"Sorry, of course. I—We take our jobs very seriously," he said. "And we've looked over the eyewitness accounts, including yours, ma'am. We know what to expect."

That was partly true. Mandy and Leslie had looked over the relevant documents, but largely because of that had no idea what to expect. Sure, the eyewitness accounts had been remarkably consistent, but what the accounts said was unlikely at best. According to experts the resort had contacted immediately following the incident, there was no way a creature like the one described should exist. Still, with four people dead and a transport pod trashed, it was clear something had gone wrong.

"It's just paranoia," Mandy once said. "Some rocks or something must've wrecked the pod, and being stuck out there all alone messed with their brains."

It was as good an explanation as the two could figure, but even then there were several facts that didn't make sense. The pod had been in a clear valley, too far away from the cliffs to have been damaged by falling rocks. Then there were the wires which had been cut too cleanly to have been anything but deliberate. And finally, of course, there was the Doctor.

"Do you think it was all him?" Leslie had asked. "I mean, the guy's more than a little weird. Shows up all on his own, seems to have a lot of technical knowledge, doesn't share his name. Then he just up and vanishes before any investigators can ask him anything."

"I'm not even sure he was there to begin with," Mandy replied. "I think him and the monster were made up, cryptid style. Overactive imaginations, I'm telling you, that's all that was."

Jones was giving Leslie a look now, one where it was clear she didn't believe he'd done his homework properly if he was treating the subject so flippantly.

"Well, if you have read the accounts, I'm sure you're wondering what you're meant to do against a creature with no physical form," said Jones. "You have three jobs. The first will be to keep a look out for anything strange. If you see a figure moving towards you out of the corner of your eye, you get yourselves and the team out of there, and fast. Your second is as a last line of defense. If the creature does manage to possess someone, it is your job to get the rest of the team away from them and off the planet. You will do so by whatever means necessary. Do you understand?"

Mandy rolled her eyes.

"So if someone starts acting a bit strange, we have your permission to kill them."

"Yes," said Jones. "If necessary."

"Wonderful. Anything else we should know?" Mandy asked

"They're not all geologists."

"What do you mean?" said Leslie.

"There are four members of the team, only three of them are geologists. The fourth, Professor Inez Lau, is a xenobiologist. She's one of the foremost experts in alien behavior, specifically in that of non-carbon based species. She's also highly intelligent. If you do come across this creature, and I sincerely hope you don't, Professor Lau may just have the expertise necessary to get all of you out of there alive." Jones stopped for breath. "Your final job is to do whatever she tells you."

"Sounds good to me," said Mandy. "So when do we leave?"

* * *

Author's Note: Hey look, a chapter that's not super short! Thank you guys so much for the reviews by the way, they make me feel all warm and fuzzy.


	4. Travellers' Return

He was just standing there, his mouth gaping like he had something he desperately wanted to say, but couldn't force out a sound.

"Tom?" she called out.

He stared at her then. His eyes looked the same, big, brown, and piercing, but they looked nothing like they had when he was alive. They seemed darker somehow, and deeper too like holes dug into mud, and she was just steps away from falling in. He was straining now, she could see, his body tense as if he were putting the whole of himself into speaking.

"You can't be here," she said, her magic words. Normally his smile would fall, he would fade, and she'd wake up alone in her bed in the dark.

He managed a noise then, a soft groan. He still didn't move, just stood there at the edge of where the light met the dark as it stretched down the long corridor. He mouthed a word, and if he said it too, it was too soft to hear.

"What is it?" she said, and walked forward. As soon as she realized what she was doing, she stopped again because of course, _of course_, it wasn't him. It couldn't be. He'd faded a long time ago.

"Inez," he said.

And she closed the distance between them.

* * *

Their arrival had been easy, at least by Mandy's standards. Sure, landing a space-pod in a slip that hadn't seen use in years posed some technical complications. She'd landed ships under much worse conditions, though, namely of the maelstrom of bullets variety. So that part was no problem. She'd let Leslie handle introductions to the team. He was normally better at that sort of thing, better jokes and all that, but he needn't have bothered with this group. They'd sat through the speech stone-faced, all except the woman. She'd spent the entire flight looking about ready to cry. Now really, Mandy had thought, Les's jokes aren't that bad.

"As long we stick together, and you do what we say, there should be no problem," Leslie said, ending his health and safety routine.

One of the guys, the _illustrious_ Professor Driscoll Honeycutt if Mandy's memory served her, snorted.

"It's _our_ expedition, you know," said Honeycutt. "I don't think we'll be taking orders from _you_."

Which was, frankly, fine by Mandy. She and Leslie had been paid in advance. If the man went and got himself killed by being an idiot, that was his Darwinian responsibility.

"We're landing soon," said Mandy. "Permission to strap our seatbelts on, Professor?" She didn't look back, but hearing Leslie laugh she could tell Honeycutt was shooting her a nasty look. A job well done, then.

There were four eggheads total: Lorn Martel, Herakleios Bellandini, Drisbag Honeycunt, and the sad one, Inez Lau. The three men were all rock doctors or something. Lau was the one meant to save their lives if a dangerous alien attacked. Frankly, Mandy was liking the alien's chances.

They all disembarked the ship together, Leslie and Mandy leading the way in case of any danger. There wasn't any, no surprise there, just a big empty room, sunlight illuminating all but the distant corners of the space. The glass of the windows was still intact, meaning the protective suits were unnecessary. Not that Mandy was about to let anyone change. Windows break sometimes. She'd been a kid once, after all, she had some experience with that.

She watched the rock doctors set up their stuff, snickering whenever Martel fumbled and almost broke a priceless piece of equipment. It happened a remarkable three times in the first five minutes, and each time Honeycunt would stop to yell at him. Ultimately, it was down to Bellandini they got anything done, and before much too long they were looking at numbers and meters while Mandy sat around bored out of her mind.

"You reckon there's a pool?" she asked Leslie. "I feel like a place like this has got to have a pool."

"It's been abandoned nearly a decade," he said.

"Yeah, and what are the odds they drained the pool before leaving?"

"Pretty good, at a guess."

Mandy stood up and stressed.

"I'm gonna go find it. You coming?"

"We're security guards. We should be guarding."

Mandy sighed.

"Fine then. You guard, I'll find the pool."

"I did say we, not me," he said.

"You can guard me."

Mandy and Leslie started at hearing Lau speak. She'd been entirely quiet the entire trip, to hear her voice now was almost unsettling.

"That is, I'll come with you. To the pool," she clarified. "I'm not a geologist, I've got nothing to do here anyway."

Mandy considered her. Lau did not look like a happy person. Her hair was messy, done up in a quick bun, and she had dark circles under her eyes she hadn't tried to cover up. Her voice was quiet, like it didn't get a lot of use, and almost the whole time Mandy had known her, she'd been looking off into space with a sad expression on her face. But right now, she was smiling. Not much, not big, no teeth showing. It was a polite little smile at best. But she was beautiful, and Mandy smiled right back.

"Sure. Let's go find it."


End file.
